Say NO to the death penalty in Belarus

A week and a half ago I had to help the mother of an executed convict to take back his belongings, which was psychologically hard. Killing one person can not fix the death of another. The principle of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" belongs to the Old Testament. Present Christian world lives mainly on the principles of the New Testament. Death penalty has been abolished throughout Europe, except for Belarus, which remains the last island of the violent execution of criminals, an example of old-time barbarism.

Mobile phones, an empty purse, vinyl plates and cassettes of the executed, finally, his belt and shoes ... Two cartons of things were returned t the mother. She still does not believe that her son has committed such a terrible crime. It's really hard to believe when you read his letters he wrote already in custody, first waiting for the worst first sentence, and then - an inevitable execution. "Departed on sentence", this is the way it is called in their inhuman language, which always hides the true meaning of the phenomenon. The current legislation of the Republic of Belarus provides not only for the execution for particularly serious crimes, but also contains provisions for actual torture of relatives of the defendant. According to the rules dating back to Stalin's times, the body of the executed is not issued to the relatives, and they are not informed about the place of the burial. In a state that can hardly be called legal, it gives rise to various conjectures – such as that somebody can use the convicts for medical experiments instead of execution. On the other hand, it gives their families the illusory hope that the convicts are still alive. What a heavy kind of psychological torture!..

I do not know how the investigation was conducted in this concrete case, but even a cursory review of the contents of the music collection of the youngster who was sentenced to death makes me conclude that he had mental problems, because mentally healthy people will not listen to such things. The people who have mental illness should not be killed, but isolated from society and given medical treatment. However, the law actually leaves no choice judge.

Excessive penalty does not diminish the evil, but only multiplies it and increases hatred. How does a judge feel after delivery of a death sentence? Allegedly, he has only fulfilled the law, but what dreams does he have, do the people's curses have effect on him? Somebody else also has to pull the trigger, pointing the barrel of a firearm to the head of the convicted person. How many of such sentences will he execute and what will happen to his psyche after a certain period of time? Of course, there is also a possibility of miscarriages of justice. This argument alone seems to be sufficient for refusing from the death penalty. At least, we don't have such a refined judicial system as the US, where the death penalty is practiced in a number of states. However, even there it was stated that about 20 innocent victims were put on electric chair.

Europe has really refused from the death penalty. However, the human community still has something in its nature that prevents its life without killing others. There are some perverted tendencies, which go directly against all the laws of nature, against God's providence, against ordinary humanity. And now people seriously put to consideration draft laws prohibiting women to give birth before reaching a certain age, proposeforced sterilization and other crimes. I don't even speak of abortions here – those who were born themselves, deny this right to others. The scale of this phenomenais simply horrifying. So, unfortunately, nothing has changed in the nature of man through the ages. The people who want to live a long life, deny this right to others, and usually don't want to think about it.

From Uladzimir Khilmanovich's blog at the website of Radio “Racyja”.